Hippocampus Flashcards
What creature does the hippocampus resemble?
Sea horse
Where is the dentate gyrus?
It appears to be at the head of the seahorse.
It’s a tooth-like bump
Where is the entorhinal cortex?
At the tail of the seahorse
What is the entorhinal cortex’s role?
Input and output.
Where are CA1 and CA3 and what are they called?
The body of the seahorse and can be called Ammon’s horn
What is the basic circuit of the hippocampus (input)?
Input from the entorhinal cortex goes by the layer II and layer II perforant path.
Layer three goes to CA1.
Layer II goes to DG and CA3. Once in the DG or CA3 it continues on to CA3 and then CA1.
CA3 has a feeback loop.
What connects information traveling from the DG to CA3
Mossy fibers. It’s one of the largest and most powerful synapses in the brain.
DG
Dental Gyrate
What is the feedback loop for CA3 called?
Recurrent collaterals
What is the path from CA3 to CA1
Schaffer collaterals
What is the Hippocampal System of that includes output?
It’s the same as input then
CA3 can feedback to the Hilus which can feed to the DG and vice versus. DG feeds to the EC which feeds back to the subiculum.
CA1 also feeds directly to the subiculum which projects back to layer V.
EC also feeds to other cortical and subcortical areas.
What is in the hippocampus proper?
DG/Hilus, CA3, CA1
EC
entorhinal cortex
sub
subiculum
What is the first and second input/output pathway for the hippocampus?
1st: Entorhinal cortex
2nd: Alveus/Fimbria/Fornix
What does the Alveus/Fimbria/Fornix communicate with?
septal nuclei and mammillary bodies
Why does the Alveus/Fimbria/Fornix have three names?
It changes names along the path.
What is known about oxygen and the hippocampus?
It’s the most sensitive area in the brain to oxygen. This is seen in that almost drowning can also lead to anterograde amnesia.
What is the cognitive map in the hippocampus?
It’s not like maps in the rest of brain.
Place cells in the hippocampus fire for where a person is located, but if the person moves, they cells next door don’t necessarily fire.
What was discovered about place cells in the hippocampus?
They are tuned to location.
They do not change firing if the rat turns around. It fires for place independent of where the rat is looking.
What is the hippocampal controversy?
Is it a spatial or memory processor.
Why evidence is there that the hippocampus is a spatial processor?
Lesioned rats were impaired on tasks requiring them to recognize cue configurations